Introduction
Failure is not something that will cause disaster. We do not fail dramatically. Failure is the result of unavoidable repertoire of thoughts and options that are less precise. In an easier way, failure is not more than the mistakes made in the daily judgment.
The problem is how does a person make mistakes in his/her judgement and repeat the same mistakes every day? The answer is that they do not to take the matter seriously. The pain and regret concerning the mistakes in making decision are only delayed into the future. Effects rarely occur overnight.
Chronic Disease
Dealing with chronic disease is not easy because the patients have to go through the transition process from diagnosis to treatment and subsequently to the management of self. Disability, depend on others and treatment, social stigma, changes in lifestyles and the cost of ongoing treatment. These are going to interfere the rutine activities of the patients. It is will affect from the aspects of spiritual, psychological, social and family and will continuously affect the physical, cognitive and emotional aspects of the patients.
Increased numbers of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure will in turn pose a risk to get other diseases such as kidney failure. This is because these diseases and other factors are the main cause for the existence of many chronic diseases.
Psychosocial Effects
Involving the social and psychological aspects is associated with mental health and social state. Do any changes in the lives of individuals, either from psychological or social aspects have a reciprocal influence? The issue relating to how further the patients could continue their life after suffering kidney failure depends on the quality of life of the patients.
The impact of psychosocial aspect of the patients toward disease (chronic illness) is unexpected. The patient’s adaptation ability to perform daily life activities as usual. The impacts on daily activities change drastically such as social activities, relationships, economic searching, comfort and so on. The effects of psychosocial also depend on :
- Personality of the patient.
- Understanding of the patient.
- Current life of the patient.
- Support from the family or community.
Social relationships will not exist in the event of the isolation process from the patient or the community / society. It can cause negative perception on the patient own self or to the community. It may reduce the patient’s psychological strength until it accelerates the disease process which turns out to be more painful. Communication or direct involvement from family, peers and community members may encourage them to continue living in a meaningful way on the basis of self-acceptance of the patients as a whole.
Emotional Effects
Lifestyle changes is something that cannot be avoided by everyone. Changes in job, accommodation, family composition or daily routine are hard to be accepted by the patients. However, not everyone can cope with the changes in lifestyle as it depends on the patient’s own perception whether it is positive or negative perceptions. Patients will undergo significant changes towards stress due to the individual needs to adapt to the daily routine, discomfort to the illness, loss of control, psychological disorders, loss of pride @ freedom itself and financial support.
Good management of daily life will reduce stress. But if the opposite happens, stress will have negative impacts on the patients themselves.
The stress is always associated with:
- Threat to the life of the patient.
- Discomfort of the treatment.
- Threat to the personal privacy.
- Threat to the future / goals
- Threat to the family relationships (husband / wife), friends or colleagues.
- Threat to themselves, a desire to maintain the relevance among the people.
- Threat to the source of income.
Good stress management ability will maintain a patient’s emotional well and less likely or suddenly suffered from depression.
Coping Strategies
The ability of an individual to deal with stress is based on their past experiences. Ability to implement coping mechanism is due to past experience and used as a tool for dealing with stress. Lessons are learned from the past experiences that are hurtful to them. Each patient’s abilities to deal with the effects of the illness also depends on the ability to control the disease, efforts to confront oneself that he/she is able to cope with these chronic diseases.
Good coping mechanism depends on the nature of the individual, past experiences and also lessons learned on the consciousness of the individual to deal with stress. Although it is good to use this coping mechanism, it would be detrimental or cause negative effects if it is uncontrolled. Examples of coping mechanism are: –
Denial
- Individual / patient may deny through avoiding undergo treatment.
- Denial attitude will not only affect themselves but also to the schedule of the treatment.
- Positive denial such as having thought that everything will be fine if he continues to undergo treatment.
- Negative denial, always consider oneself is healthy and does not have any health problems.
Diversion of Feelings
- One of the best coping mechanisms for renal patients, anger or frustration are changed to follow the instructions of the treatment.
- Negative impact of the diversion of feelings, feelings of loss of control will cause the patient to give up quickly.
- Act rebelled against oneself, lost faith in the treatment.
Family Role
The family is the primary liaison with the patient together with the treatment. High commitment among the patient’s family will determine the benchmark of the extent to which the patient can survive with the disease. The role of the family not only provides space for treatment but also the needs of the patient, care and financial needs.
Education to the Patient and Family
Despite treatment, medical support and care are key factors in ensuring the maximum care to the patient, the patient’s own role is undeniable as one of the contributors to the effectiveness of the treatment. Without a high commitment from all the aspects of the patient, the patient may not be able to perform all the treatments.
The Role of Society Against Chronic Disease
Each patient has his own views on the disease and to the extent of which the view is dependent on whether it is a liability or as an encouragement to the patients to resume daily activities as before. Therefore, any individual who has direct contact with the patient or as a nurse must understand the limitations of each patient and help the patient to adapt the treatment given or involve the patients in the community social activities.
Conclusion
Psychosocial factors on the patients who are dealing with chronic diseases should be concomitant with the daily treatment of the patients, without social and emotional support from the people around will indirectly affect the illness. Increasingly felt the pain of the disease is due to the fact that patients are more concentrated on the illness and thus contribute to the patient’s failure to deal with the chronic disease.
Reference
- Kotter, J.P. ( 1990 ). A force for change; How leadership differs from management. Free Press. New York.
- Rees, D.W. (1990 ). The skills of management. 2nd. Ed. Routledge. New York.
- Yuki, G. ( 1995 ). Leadership in Organization. Englewood Cliff. NJ. Prentice Hall.
Last Reviewed | : | 3 December 2015 |
Writer | : | Edmund R.Tsen |
Translator | : | Edmund R.Tsen |
Accreditor | : | Tn Hj Hairol Kamal bin Abd Rahman |